Date:             Tuesday, March 15th 2011
Time:             4 - 6pm
Venue:           SG17, Robert Schumann Building, UL

ISKS Conversation

Ireland has voted:  What are the prospects for reform?

Speakers:

Professor Gary Murphy, Dublin City University

Prof Gary Murphy will be speaking about the possibilities of political reform in the new government, what shape it might take and to what end such reform will lead. He is a member of a group of academics who are looking at such reform under the following headings: Oireachtas, Electoral, Open Government, Public Sector, and Local Government and scored the party manifestos on each of these issues for the website www.reformcard.com.

Sara Burke, Political Analyst

Sara Burke will be sharing her expert opinion on the implications of the Election 2011 for the Irish health services. She will examine the current situation, the proposals for reform and what developments and changes possibly lay ahead for Irelands' health system.

Dr Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick

Dr Stephen Kinsella will be analysing the following topics in his talk: 1.Taxation and Expenditure; 2. Reform of our relationship with the EU; 3. Reform of our relationship with debt, and 4. the 'ungraspable' in Irish Public Policy: things we all know, but don't care to talk about very much.

Free public event - All Welcome

About the speakers:

Dr Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick

Stephen Kinsella is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Limerick. He was educated at TCD, BA 2002, NUIG, M.Econ.Sc. 2003, New School for Social Research, MA & M.Phil 2007, NUIG, Ph.D 2007 and New School for Social Research, Ph.D 2010. Before joining the University of Limerick in 2006, he worked as Research Assistant at NUIG and Teaching Assistant at NUIG and the New School for Social Research. His research spans the area of computable economics, health economics, and experimental economics. Stephen Kinsella is the author of Ireland in 2050: How we will be Living and Understanding Ireland's Economic Crisis: Prospects for Recovery.

Professor Gary Murphy, Dublin City University

Prof Gary Murphy was born in Cork City in 1968, educated by the Christian Brothers at Sullivan's Quay and later at UCC, BA 1990, MA 1992, DCU, Ph.D. 1996. He worked in DCU since 1995 originally in the Business School, and is now Associate Professor of Government in the School of Law and Government. Prof Murphy is a former editor of Irish Political Studies, the leading journal of political science in Ireland published by Taylor and Francis. In 2007 he was appointed DCU's first Director of Graduate Research. He is currently the President of the Political Studies Association of Ireland having been elected to that position in 2009.

Sara Burke, Political Analyst

Sara Burke is a journalist, broadcaster and health policy analyst. She has worked in, researched and written on inequalities in public health, health and social services since 1992. From 1992 to 1997, she worked an outreach street worker for Focus Ireland with homeless teenagers in Dublin's city centre. For two and half years in the late 1990s, she worked as a researcher and policy officer in the Department of Health. From 2000 to 2004, she was a policy analyst in the Institute of Public Health, an all Ireland organisation, which advises governments, North and South, on strategies to reduce health inequalities. She is currently in year two of a PhD in Health Service Research in Trinity College Dublin and has written a book on the Irish health system called Irish Apartheid, Healthcare Inequality in Ireland, which was published by New Island at the end of June 2009.

Admission is free but if you are interested in attending the event please RSVP by email or phone: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 061 234607 as places are limited. For enquiries about the event please contact Niamh O'Sullivan (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) / 061 234607). Details are also available on http://www.ul.ie/isks/news.html.